New York Times apologises for flawed reporting

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The New York Times has published a self-critical note to its readers, in effect apologising for some of the paper's reporting on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq which was "not as rigorous as it should have been".

Some of the stories relied on Iraqi exiled leader Ahmed Chalabi and his Iraqi National Congress Group, whose prewar information on WMDs has now largely been discredited.

The mea culpa, published yesterday, referred to stories before the US and allies invaded in March last year and during the early days of the occupation.

Much of the paper's critique of its reportage revolved around reporting the allegations of some anti-Saddam figures without accompanying qualification, and failing to correct mistakes in follow-up stories.

The note, which includes a pledge to "continue aggressive reporting aimed at setting the record straight", follows months of criticism by readers, journalists and some anti-war politicians who have argued that the paper's numerous stories suggesting that Saddam Hussein might have constructed a large WMD program helped bolster the Bush Administration's argument for war. No such weapons have been found.

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The note says the paper reviewed hundreds of articles and turned up an "enormous amount of journalism that we are proud of". "But we have found a number of instances of coverage that was not as rigorous as it should have been."

The note refers to several stories, most of which appeared on the front page.

One story, published on December 20, 2001, described an Iraqi who said he worked at numerous biological, chemical and nuclear weapons sites as recently as late 2000, but offered little scepticism of his unverified claims. Another, published on April 21 last year, quoted an Iraqi scientist as saying that Iraq destroyed chemical weapons and biological warfare equipment days before the war started.

- Los Angeles Times

The Age, which has the rights to New York Times reports, published two of the stories cited as potentially flawed.